


I Should Have Been There

by incendiarySongbird



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Minor Character Death, basically the beginning of the game, josh's thoughts about the incident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 07:45:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6974005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incendiarySongbird/pseuds/incendiarySongbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's basically the beginning of the game, only Josh is recalling it. We spend a lot of time in Josh Washinton's head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Should Have Been There

Hannah was only eighteen at the time of the Incident. She was young, too young. Mom didn’t want her to come to the lodge with us. She said that Hannah was too naïve to be without adult supervision. She was too trusting and gullible. Mom thought that my friends would pick on her and that she’d feel left out. We didn’t believe her, of course. These were Hannah’s friends, too. Besides, we only wanted to go up to the lodge because it was Hannah and Beth’s birthday. Obvious, Hannah had to come. She had planned the party herself with her best friend, Sam. Besides, Beth and I would be there to take care of her. We would never let anything happen to our baby sister.

Eighteen. She was only eighteen, and she was hopeful. She had invited Mike, the guy she’d been crushing on since middle school. Of course, he was one of my friends, and he had a girlfriend, but that didn’t mean anything. That night would be the night that he noticed her as the beautiful, strong woman that she was. It had to be. She had gotten a tattoo for him, a small butterfly on her shoulder. Normally, Hannah and Mike wouldn’t be compatible due to their astrological signs. That is, unless she did something crazy to draw his attention, something crazy like getting a tattoo. He never really noticed.

Still, she was hopeful. She had just turned eighteen, after all. Eighteen was when you became an adult, Hannah believed. It was when life got better, and hard work paid off. I tried to tell Hannah that her theory wasn’t quite true, but I never had the heart. It wouldn’t be right to shatter Hannah’s innocence and optimism. It wouldn’t be right to tell her that Mike wasn’t interested. It wouldn’t be right to ruin her birthday.

Hannah was only eighteen when she died. Mom was right about the lodge. Mom was always right. Hannah wasn’t ready to come with us. She was too innocent and too naïve, and my friends were too cruel and too bored. It was around one in the morning when they devised their plan to prank Hannah. It was our first night down at the lodge. We were supposed to go skiing in the morning, but that never happened. Hannah and Beth died because my friends wanted to play a stupid, tasteless joke. My sisters never made it until dawn.

It was around one in the morning when Emily decided to play the prank. Hannah had been getting too close to her boyfriend. She had been flirting, she had been desirable, and she had been available. Obviously, Emily didn’t like that. The plan was to leave Hannah a note. It would invite Hannah to spend the night with Mike, the guy that everybody knew she had a crush on, the guy that everybody knew wasn’t interested. When she arrived to the designated meeting spot, Mike would play his part. He’d flirt. He’d egg her on. Meanwhile, my friends would be recording. My friends would be lying in wait. When Mike’s act went too far, they’d jump out from their hiding spots and reveal that it was all a prank. Then, they’d all laugh about it. That was the plan.

It was around one in the morning when Chris and I passed out at the kitchen counter. We had been drinking all day. There was no adult supervision in the woods. We were the adult supervision, so we drank until we couldn’t see straight. It was only a matter of time before we crashed. SO much for being responsible adults. So much for watching out for my sisters. I wish I had been awake. I wish I’d been able to so much as lift my head. I could have helped Beth stop the prank. I could have searched the woods for Hannah. I could have saved Hannah. I could have saved her. If I wasn’t unconscious and completely hammered… If I hadn’t been so damn selfish and unreliable… If I hadn’t been drinking, I could have saved my sisters.

It was about one thirty when my friends pranked Hannah. Hannah had tried to take her shirt off. She had tried to give herself to the man she’d been not-so-secretly in love with for years, but this wasn’t real. Mike wasn’t interested in her. He was just playing along in some stupid game. He was playing with her emotions for the amusement of my friends. Hannah was hurt. She had broken down crying and ran out of the room. Nobody followed her. Nobody cared.

It was about one forty-five when Hannah ran out into the woods. Beth had tried to warn me that she’d seen something in the woods earlier that night. She tried to warn me that someone… No, something was out there. I didn’t believe her. After all, Dad said it would just be us on the mountain this weekend. What reason did I have to distrust Dad? The woods were safe. We had spent entire summers in that lodge as kids. Nothing would go wrong. Nothing.

There was something in those woods, something evil that stalked my sisters through the night. Hannah was quick and light on her feet. Fueled by adrenaline and pain, she ran blindly through the forest. She ran until she came to a cliff. Only after she collapsed to her knees from exhaustion did she realize how stupid it was to run out alone into the night without a jacket. Hannah shivered. It was around one fifty when Hannah could feel somebody watching her. She felt eyes at her back, as if she were being stalked, hunted.

Beth followed as best she could, but Hannah was gone within seconds. She left our friends behind at the lodge. Nobody followed Beth either. Nobody cared. She tried to stir me from my sleep. She tried to get me to help, but I was completely gone. I couldn’t help her. I couldn’t help Beth find our baby sister because I was selfish. I was irresponsible.

Eighteen. Hannah was eighteen when she came to that cliff. She sat there in her short-sleeved shirt, freezing to death. She didn’t mind it, though. What did she have to live for? Her friends didn’t care about her. Obviously. They had shown how much they cared when they sent her the calling card. They had showed how much they cared when they recorded her from their hiding spots in wardrobes and under the bed. They showed how much they cared when none of them followed her into the snow. Mike didn’t want her either. He was acting, as it was all a part of a plan to make Hannah look like a fool. She was just a pretty face to him. She had no substance. She wasn’t a person. Hannah wrapped her arms protectively around herself. She was the only one she could trust. After all, her friends had betrayed her.

It was around one fifty-two when Beth found Hannah. Beth dropped to her knees, and she took off her jacket. She draped it over Hannah’s shoulders, and Hannah hugged her sister. Hannah cried, but Beth held on to her protectively, as a good sibling would do, as I couldn’t do. Their tender moment didn’t last for long, though. Something was watching them. Something had been stalking them since they left the lodge. It was something. Yes, something. Beth stood in order to get a better look at it, but all she could see were shadows darting through the forest.

It was around one fifty-three when Beth walked back toward the forest. She wanted to know what that something was. She didn’t get far. That something wanted t be found. Beth stumbled backwards, just barely missing Hannah and she collapse onto the show. The something was tall, unbelievably so. It was humanoid, but it looked as if its limbs were stretched and broken in multiple places. It had little hair, and its skin stretched morbidly over its bones. It had teeth like nothing she had seen before, large and jagged. They were sharp. They looked as if they could tear through flesh. Its eyes were probably the most significant thing about the creature. They were completely black, and Hannah felt as if they were staring straight through her.

The creature approached them, but they scrambled backwards. They backed away until they reached the end of the cliff. Hannah and Beth accepted their fates. They were cornered, and there was no way they could escape. The ground gave way beneath them, and the two girls fell. Beth was lucky enough to grab both a branch and her sister’s hand. The creature peered over the edge of the cliff, and Beth hung on for both of their lives.

It was about one fifty-seven when the creature leaned over the cliff-face. It was even uglier up close, and those sold, black eyes bore into Beth’s entire being. Beth turned her head away from the creature, but she could feel its sickly, moist breath against her face. It smelled of iron, of blood. Beth could feel her hands slipping. She had always been known to have sweaty hands, and a creature breathing down her neck didn’t make her any less nervous.

I should have been there. I should have been there to pull them back up the Cliffside, to scare away the creature. I shouldn’t have let them leave the lodge in the first place. I should have… But I didn’t. I couldn’t give my sisters a second thought. It was supposed to be party time. It was supposed to be… But it wasn’t.

It was around two in the morning when the creature was distracted by something. It left Beth’s side to investigate a strange sound. Beth watched the sky from below as she saw fire streak across the deep blue. An inhumane screech echoed through the mountains. Suddenly, there was a hand reaching down to help her. Beth had two options. She could either let go of the branch she’d been clinging to so desperately and take her chances with the fall, or she could let go of Hannah and accept the help from above. She wasn’t prepared to do either, but her grip was slipping.

Eighteen. Beth was eighteen when she made the decision to drop her sister into the snowy abyss below the Cliffside. Beth reached out for the assistance from above, but her branch gave way, and she, too, fell to her death. Eighteen. Eighteen. She was only eighteen.

I was nineteen at the time of the incident. I would have gladly fell down the mountain in my sisters’ place. I probably could have survived the drop, too. Hell, if Beth hadn’t snapped her neck on that rock, she would have survived, too. Hannah survived. She survived for two weeks in those mines, all alone, with nothing to eat but her sister’s decomposing body. I should have been there. I should have saved Hannah. I should have been the one to fall to my death.

I should have… But I wasn’t.


End file.
